Bill O’Brien spent 30 minutes carefully wading through the expected questions about how Illinois “recruited” his players this past summer.

He redirected the questions, talked around them, tried to make it clear that his Nittany Lions need no such additional motivation when traveling to meet the Fighting Illini on Saturday in Champaign, Ill., to start the Big Ten season.

But a bit later he finally made his point -- by saying almost nothing.

He was asked for confirmation about taking some time at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago to talk things out with Illinois coach Tim Beckman.

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It could have been an opportunity to clear up any misunderstandings, or even accept an apology, from the Illini coach who sent an armada of assistants to State College as soon as NCAA sanctions were announced against Penn State.

Players could transfer immediately and without penalty, and the Illinois staff certainly was the most brazen about pursuing the Lions.

Or, as Beckman put it, simply gauging their interest in leaving.

They did not break any rules by doing so. But they did anger a lot of Lions.

O’Brien?

The energetic, animated coach with an admitted short fuse?

Well, there was that meeting in Chicago with Beckman, possibly to make amends.

O’Brien was terse when asked Tuesday for his recollection.

“I think I met him at the Big Ten Media Days. And that’s about it.”

Earlier, three straight questions on the matter ended with a reporter asking O’Brien if it bothered him that Illinois appeared to be the only Big Ten school to come after his players.

He paused.

“It takes a lot to bother me.

“So I would tell you that, again, our players, myself, our staff, we’re very focused on the task at hand . . .”

And so that’s how it went.

Emotion and true meaning probably won’t be clearly deciphered until the teams take the field Saturday morning, and maybe not until after the day is done.

Rather, O’Brien preferred to spend his time elaborating on his stable of injured running backs getting healthy and the development of quarterback Matt McGloin and trying to fix the rash of penalties that appeared out of nowhere.

It was much easier to talk about the Fighting Illini, the football team.

The other stuff would remain between him and his players.

They’re back

Starting tailback Bill Belton, who has missed 31/2 games with a bad ankle sprain, practiced Monday and expects to return Saturday.

He is one of the Lions’ few big-play threats.

“Billy is a guy who has good feet, good vision and can catch the football,” O’Brien said. “So it’s good to have him back because he’s another change-of-pace type of running back.”

Also expected to return is senior backup Derek Day (shoulder) and junior Curtis Dukes (thigh). Senior fullback-turned-tailback Mike Zordich also said he will play after suffering a minor knee injury against Temple.

One out of two

Senior defensive end Sean Stanley should return from a back injury but senior end Pete Massaro is expected to be scratched again with knee and shoulder problems, O’Brien said.

Coaching him up

O’Brien still has confidence in junior receiver Brandon Moseby-Felder after he let a ball bounce off his hands for an interception vs. Temple.

He is “one of the most improved players on our football team,” O’Brien said.

“Receivers . . . when they drop the ball we all get frustrated. I just told him, ‘Hey, look, Brandon, we’re not benching you. We’re going to come back to you. Probably going to run that same route again at some point, and when we go to you again you need to catch the ball, put it away, and score.’

“But he’s a resilient guy. He did some nice things on Saturday.”

They can still win it

Although the Lions cannot play in the Big Ten title game and cannot go to a bowl, they can still win the Leaders Division title.

But O’Brien downplayed that for now.

“What we try to do is really just focus on the game for that week. So we try to break it down into 12 one-game seasons. We’ve played four, now we’re focused on the fifth game, the Illinois game, and we don’t think about anything down the road.”